About Us

On Pause

First, an update! Lil’Soak Designs is currently on pause. As much as we passionately believed in the project (and still do), circumstances and economics mean that we aren’t able to keep it going right now. So, for now, we aren’t able to share stories and products from brilliant artisans around the world, but we still believe that you can make a difference by thinking carefully about who is making and benefiting from the products you buy, and hope that someday we will return to this project and try again. Many thanks to all our wonderful customers, friends, and family who helped out over the years, and all our best wishes to the many brilliant artisans we met from around the world whose efforts have brought delight and happiness to others, both around the world and in their own communities and families. Hope to see you all again soon.

– Tim and Sonya

What Lil’Soak Designs is (was) all about.

Lil’Soak Designs is a fashion design and manufacturing studio run by its two founders, Timothy and Sonya Jones. Lil’Soak is known for its Kawaii sense of style (from the Japanese word for cute) and for its use of higher end materials in a product line composed primarily of reasonably price accessories. Lil’soak is strongly committed to ethical manufacturing and works with a number of different non profits to help artisans earn a sustainable income, acquire employable skills, receive access to daycare, and escape the sex trade.

History

Lil’Soak Designs traces its history back to 2009 when Tim and Sonya had just started dating and independently started design businesses. Tim had just gone on a missions trip to the Philippines and had started a livelihood project helping Filipino artisans make and sell their goods in North America. Sonya meanwhile had started her own small run luggage tag business. And the rest, as they say, is history. Within a year both projects were merged and the resulting company was Lil’Soak Designs. At that point as a fair trade marketplace selling stylish products through small artisans groups sharing the same mission and values. We love adventure and stories. We’re excited to share the story of the people who made your delightful good. A portion of the sales of each good will journey back to the artisan groups to help fund education, shelter, health, food and micro-loans. Now that’s a story worth telling.